A History Lesson on Canon 20mm Lenses

[Canon Rumors]

Things are slow in the rumor world, but I had to write something. The rumor mill will pick-up soon, but instead of that. History lesson time! I figured I knew everything Canon has released when it comes to photography gear. I do enjoy vintage lenses and have purchased a bunch of the Canon Leica Thread […]

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[Bob Howland]

Craig mentioned the 24 f/1.4 SSC. I watched a guy buy one of those in I think 1975. He paid for half of it with cash and put the other half on his credit card. He said the didn't want his wife to know how much the lens cost.

 

[candyman]

Craig mentioned the 24 f/1.4 SSC. I watched a guy buy one of those in I think 1975. He paid for half of it with cash and put the other half on his credit card. He said the didn't want his wife to know how much the lens cost.

So basically nothing has changed.....

 

[Maximilian]

...Canon was proud of their floating rear focusing system with the claim that you'd get sharp images no matter the distance of the subject. I guess this could be considered true if every image is soft. ...

Thank you very much for that phrase. That made my day and I still have to to gasp for breath laughing that much

 

[mb66energy]

I bought the sister lens of the FD 20, the FD-n 17mm f/4 maybe 40 years ago 2nd hand for 450 "Deutsche Mark" / 200$ of mid 1980s.
While it has the soft corners too it was good on film (ISO400 B/W) and rendering was o.k.
In terms of flares it is great because it has lots of them and it is good enough for 2k or just 4k video. If I will ever do some night scene of a car with strong headlights, this might be a good choice because of these flares!

 

[Del Paso]

Canon's 20mm lenses were the reason why I bought the Zeiss Classic 21mm f/2,8. Still a brillant lens, even on an R5 II.
But the RF 20mm f/1,4 is better...

 

[Skyfall]

20mm is indeed the sweet spot of wide angle. Just bought the 1.4 for handheld milky way and aurora but realized its just plain fun and very useful as a general purpose low light lens, especially indoors at parties. Nice bokeh for macro-ish flower pics and okay sunstars doesnt hurt either

 

[AJ]

I had an EF 20 mm f/2.8 USM back about 20 years ago.
The good: decent sharpness on a 6 mpix sensor when stopped down to f/11. Moderate red-green fringing was easily corrected. Fast and silent AF. Decent build.
The bad: useless wide-open. Really soft corners. Heavy vignetting across much of the frame even when stopped down (really noticeable on slides).
I got a good price for it when I sold it. I felt a bit sorry for the guy I sold it to.

 

[Ian K]

You missed the RF 10-20mm f4L STM

 

[neuroanatomist]

You missed the RF 10-20mm f4L STM

??

The article is about primes. There’s a long list of zooms that cover the 20mm focal length, starting (I think) with the FDn 20-35/3.5L from 1984.

 

[DocInfoSci]

I have the EF 20mm f/2.8 USM still. It's definitely a character lens. If you want a native sharp performance for most places you need to hit f/5.6 and for everywhere you need f/8. f/2.8 is great for isolating a point and letting the surroundings drift away — think of a focal point in a bar or old barn where the rest is merely a suggestion of place.

With DLO the situation improves by leaps and bounds! It was DLO that kept the lens in my bag, and it remains a good option for autumn landscapes, casual wide travel (it is small), etc. You'll never shoot it for critical sharpness, but... but... it has a pleasant character to the rendering. One of those I like this chocolate better than that chocolate feelings. In the hand it has a nice feel. That stated, it will never be an EF 24mm f/1.4 II.

The EF 28mm f/1.8 USM never thrilled me. It has a great form factor, but I never liked the rendering. Even with DLO. Good on a crop, however, and so my kiddo now owns my copy.

20mm is a very pleasant framing for the world. When it comes to people, the subject is the scene and the person is a prop.

 

[notsure]

while not a canon-made lens, i can very much recommend the voigtlander EF 20mm 3.5 SL II, manual focus, automatic aperture lens. it's not pin sharp by any modern standards but has plenty of character, and being a pancake lens it's very fun to use.

 

[m4ndr4ke]

I could almost swear we've discussed the EF 20mm here before @Canon Rumors

It's funny that you mention this lens now, as last week I was somewhat considering it - that was until I saw its vignetting, which is over 1 stop darker than the RF 16mm f/2.8

I'm considering the EF 28mm f/1.8 USM though, they're cheap these days, and they're about the same size as the RF 45mm, with the adapter.

 

[Ian K]

The title says nothing about primes, it also mentions the 15-35mm.

 

[AJ]

With DLO the situation improves by leaps and bounds! It was DLO that kept the lens in my bag

Thanks! I'll give DLO a try on some of my old files.

 

[DocInfoSci]

Thanks! I'll give DLO a try on some of my old files.

Sure thing! With my R6 and my general subjects I usually just keep in-camera DLO to max, and for serious editing on something special I run the image through DPP to get a DLO-ified TIFF that I then play with elsewhere.

Canon's DLO optimizes for the most interesting things, even with EF lenses. It will often correct lenses for fuzziness caused by weird stuff like field curvature. The primary reason the 20mm f.28 USM is "soft" is because its focal plane is very curved, and the likely reason people find f/8 or f/11 to be "sharp" is that at those settings on an UWA lens the DOF includes much of the area affected by the curve (the curve and DOF start to overlap relative to the focal point). You can actually test this for yourself by setting the lens to f/2.8 and shooting a scene with an arc of something — plastic cups, for an example — and adjust their relative arc until most are in focus; or alternatively place them in a line and keep bumping the f-stop. There are other factors, like how Canon struggled with corners for years, and so forth. Anyhow, Canon's DLO as of the R series knows of this fact and makes seemingly progressive sharpness adjustments to the image to better placate modern taste with a few tricks of illusion. DLO also deals with other shortcomings, such as the vignetting, coma to a degree, etc.

Playing in this manner also teaches one a lot about how Canon can / is using DLO as a sophisticated crutch for hybrid lenses like the VCM series, which by design make use of distortion correction as needed to keep barrels the same size across the series for consistent use with video equipment.

Again, this isn't a top-shelf L lens and never will be — DLO works with what it has — but with DLO I find it's a very pleasant personal interest lens for when the mood strikes.